"Colossus" Event Will Easily Smash Record For Largest Live Poker Event
Published on May 30th, 2015 8:16 am EST
Michael Wang of Livingston, New Jersey outlasted over 400 other players to take down the first open event of the 2015 World Series of Poker earlier tonight. 422 players ended up turning out for Event #2 ($5,000 No Limit Hold'em), which created a total prize pool of $1,983,400, with $466,120 to the winner.
The winner of the event was certainly going to earn their bracelet, as the final table included a former World Series of Poker main event champion (Greg Merson) and the ultra-talented Bryn Kenney, just to name a few.
The tournament came down to Kenney and Wang heads-up for the bracelet. The final hand of the event came when Wang put Kenney all-in with the board reading Qh-Kh-8c-9d-10h. Kenney fidgeted for a while before finally electing to make the call. Wang flipped over Jh-2h for the flush, while Kenney showed 9h-6h for an inferior flush. Kenney was sent to the rail in second place, and Wang was crowned the champion.
This was the first WSOP bracelet of Wang's career.
Here is how the final table ended up finishing out:
Michael Wang, $466,120
Bryn Kenney, $287,870
Artur Koren, $208,177
Greg Merson, $152,126
Jason Wheeler, $112,339
Amir Lehavot, $83,838
Joe Ebanks, $63,210
Long Nguyen, $48,137
Byron Kaverman, $37,030
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To nobody's surprise, the inaugural "Colossus" event ($565 No Limit Hold'em, $5,000,000 Guaranteed prize pool) is drawing massive crowds.
While the final numbers haven't been released as of yet, over 5,500 players turned out for Day 1A of the event, while thousands more turned out for Day 1B. Saturday is expected to be just as busy, if not busier.
The stated goal of the World Series of Poker was to make the "Colossus" the largest live poker tournament of all time, and that record should be easily broken, based on the first day of play. The World Series of Poker revealed earlier today that more than 20,000 participants are expected for the event, which is a ridiculously strong turnout and speaks loudly about the continuing popularity of the game of poker.
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Filed Under: The World Series of Poker
